Privacy — Fondale

Last updated 13 October 2026

The principle

Fondale is a dive logbook for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch: certifications, logbook, dive sites, Counter mode and the recommended wait before flying. Fondale has no server: your logbook lives on your device and in your own iCloud. We never receive, store or see your logbook. The only thing that can reach us is an email you choose to send, such as the report of a comment.

What the app keeps

Fondale records what you put into it:

your dives: date, site, depth, time, gas, gear, conditions, notes, observations, rating, dive profile and signatures
your certifications: agency, course, number, dates, instructor, centre, and the images of the cards you scan or pick
your sites, your trips, your buddies, your gear and your diver profile (name, emergency contact, insurance)
for the photos you attach to a dive or a site, only a reference to the photo in your library, never a copy
your settings: units, language, display preferences

Where it lives

On your device. If iCloud is on, your logbook also syncs through your own private iCloud database, which Apple encrypts and which we cannot open, read or list. What you share with a circle goes from your iCloud to the people you invite, as described below; we have no access to it either. The iPhone passes a summary — your cards, your last dive, the wait before flying — to your Apple Watch directly, for the widgets and Counter mode.

What it asks permission for

Every one of these is optional. Refuse any of them and the rest of the app keeps working.

Health — read only: To import the dives your Apple Watch records. See the Health section below.
Camera: To scan your certification cards. The text is read on the device, by Apple’s text recognition and, where it is available, Apple’s on-device language model; nothing is sent to a server. The images stay in the app and in your private iCloud.
Photos: To show the photos you attach to a dive or a site. Fondale keeps only a reference to each photo, never a copy. A card image you pick from your library is the one exception: it is kept with the card, like a scan.
Location, while the app is in use: To find the site you are at and place a new site on the map. Your position stays on the device, except as described under “What leaves the device”.
Contacts: No permission is asked. To choose a buddy, Fondale opens Apple’s contact picker: only the person you pick is passed to the app, which keeps the name and a link to that contact. Fondale never has access to your address book.
Bluetooth: To download dives from your dive computer. The connection is direct, between your device and the dive computer.
Notifications: For the reminders you turn on: a card about to expire, gear due for service, the end of the wait before flying. They are composed and shown on the device; no push, no server. The wait can also show on the Lock Screen while it runs.

Health

Fondale reads the dives your Apple Watch records in Health — the workout, the depth and the water temperature — to add them to your logbook. It reads them on the device and writes nothing to Health.

What leaves the device

The app has no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising and no third-party kit of any kind. What it does send, it sends only to the services below, and only for what you asked it to do:

Apple Maps, to draw and to search: Draws the map. When you search the map for a place (a town, a bay, an island), Apple receives what you type, as the Maps app would; dive sites, yours and those of the world map, are searched offline, on the device. If you ask for directions to a site, its position goes to Apple Maps, which opens.
Apple Maps, to name a country: The position of a new site, to learn which country it is in. Without a network the site is saved anyway, and the country is asked for again the next time the app opens.
iCloud, to share with your circles: Only if you choose to, and only with the people you invite: the dives you share (date, site, country, depth, time, temperature, visibility and profile — no notes, photos, buddies or position); the trips you share (name, country, dates, sites with their position so members can dive them, chosen dive centres, dives and, only if you tick the option, up to twelve reduced photos); the comments you write on something shared; your first name in the circles you join; and, if you agree, an email address or phone number circle members can see to invite you. A label (a list of people) is never shared, and the people on it are not notified. Comments are visible to everyone the item is shared with; do not post anything unlawful, hateful, harassing or that infringes the rights of others.
A report, by email: From a comment itself you can hide it or block its author, on your device, or report it. Reporting prepares an email to [email protected] with the app, the date, the author’s first name and the comment; you add why and send it yourself. Reports are reviewed as promptly as possible, and the owner of what is shared can remove anyone from it.
Links and calls: The links you tap — Wikipedia, Wikidata, OpenStreetMap, a dive centre’s website, the source of a site or of a course’s requirements — open in your browser. Calling a dive centre or the emergency line shown with the wait before flying goes through your phone. The app itself sends them nothing.
Siri: When you ask Siri for your dive count or the wait before flying, the answer is computed on the device. What you say to Siri is handled by Apple, under its own policy.
The App Store: If you buy Fondale Pro, your device talks to the App Store, as it does for any purchase. We are told a sale happened; we are never told who you are. The App Store also opens if you tap the occasional suggestion of another Nidello app, which you can turn off in the app.

Only a report you send yourself reaches us, as an email. We have no server in any of the other paths, and we never receive a copy of what you share.

Other Nidello apps

If you also use them, Fondale leaves a few facts for other Nidello apps on your device, through the storage they share there: the sites you have dived, with their place and dates, for Cartina; the sites you want to dive and the end of the wait before flying, for Bivio. It reads your flights from Bivio, your travels from Cartina and your circles from Cerchia. None of it leaves the device this way.

Your data is yours

Export your logbook as PDF, UDDF or CSV whenever you want, without asking us. Delete the app and what was only on the device is gone; what synced to iCloud goes when you remove Fondale from your iCloud settings. Stop sharing an item and the people in the circle can no longer open it. We cannot recover any of it for you, because we never had it.

Children

The app is not directed at children and collects nothing about anyone, of any age.

Changes to this page

If the app ever starts doing something this page does not describe, this page changes first. The date at the top says when it last did.

Your rights

Quebec’s Law 25 and similar laws elsewhere give you the right to access, correct and delete the personal information a business holds about you. Your logbook is on your device and in your own iCloud, where you can already read, change and delete all of it yourself; we hold none of it. If you have emailed us, for a report or a question, that email is the only thing we hold: ask, and we will delete it.

Contact

Nidello — Canada — [email protected]